Giuseppe D'Elia's Experience
Clients aren’t the only people having problems
with James Watson and Atlantis Studios. Atlantis Studios isn’t always paying its
own artists, either.
I only found this out because the artists I
wanted to use – who is (at time of writing) listed as one of Atlantis’ artists –
wasn’t working on my project because of he was owed more than
$3000!
If you’re an artist thinking
of doing any work for Atlantis Studios or James Watson, we suggest you read this
first:
The following outlines what happened when
Italy-based comics artist, Giuseppe D’Elia, did the pencils and inks on one of
Atlantis Studios’ flagship comics titles: “The Librarian – Return to King
Solomon’s mines”, and “Betsy
Stevens and the Domestic Goddesses.”
While Giuseppe was paid for some early work –
and subsequently paid small amounts for work he did subsequently – a large
portion of his invoice from 2006 remained unpaid at the start of
2007.
On 21 February, 2007 – after Giuseppe has
waited nearly four months to be paid the oustanding amount – he received
the following email from James Watson:
As you
know, Atlantis Studios is a full-time, for-profit venture which depends on a
delicate balance
between new clients, on-time completion of projects, and
prompt payment by clients so that all of us can be paid.
Over the past 90
days, we have run into frustrating delays and costly, seemingly unending
setbacks on a number of these fronts. This has hurt me as much as it has hurt
you - I've been unable to pay my rent, my electric bill, food and the essentials
of life. I know what it means to not get the money you're expecting!
The
"start-up capital" that was used to launch the business in 2005-2006 is no
longer there to give any of us a cushion. Atlantis Studio needs to fly on its
own now - or it will not fly at all!
There is reason to be optimistic: we
still have a strong base of loyal clients, strong projects
nearing
completion, a good number of new, profitable projects coming our way,
and I believe the next few weeks will see things turn around for the
better.
However, it may take months to work through this 'rough patch'. The
next 30 days will tell us a lot
about the future of Atlantis Studios, and I
ask for your patience during that time so that I can help make that future a
positive one for all of us.
If you're receiving this e-mail it is because I
admire and respect your work. I want to express my apology for the
delays…
Well, whatever “the next 30 days” told anyone
about the future of Atlantis Studios, the fact remained that Giuseppe went
unpaid.
On June 1, 2007, Giuseppe sent the following
email:
James,
it's a long time I don't get news
from you about 'Betsy' and 'Librarian' developments, and three emails of mine
had no answer from you.
I begin to be worried...
Please let me
know.
Thanks,
Giuseppe
Giuseppe,
I appreciate your
patience and I'll get updates as I have them - and money as it comes in.
This
morning you should have a payment for $60.00 for the cover work via
Paypal.
Thanks,
So $60 down; more than $3000 to
go…
A week later, Giuseppe wrote
again:
James,
please let me know about Librarian
and Betsy payments.
Keep me posted...
Thanks,
Giuseppe
I will.
The Librarian money is
very slow and scattered as sales come in. Betsy should be approved and paid for
next week.
Great! Some of Giuseppe’s money
would be coming the following week.
But… on June
19th…
Hello James,
please let me know about the payments
I'm waiting for.
I'm still waiting for $2075 for 'Librarian', and for $1100 for 'Betsy'.
Thanks,
Giuseppe
And from
James:
Giuseppe,
Betsy will be paid
before the Librarian.
I just got approvals on Betsy Stevens and it looks like
we'll have payment within the week.
Librarian is still sporadic, but steady -
watch for more payments on that this month.
Sorry it's been taking so
long...
Payment within a week? Great,
progress at last!
Or not… July
11th:
Hello James,
do you have news for me
about Betsy and Librarian payments ?
Please let me know.
Thanks,
Giuseppe
And from
James:
Looks
like a payment (s) on the Librarian may come before Betsy, and within a few
days. Trying to get everything settled and paid with
you.
Months go past. Giuseppe sends
several more emails of a similar nature and gets little in the way of responses.
He addresses his next email to an
employee of James (who will remain anonymous).
The following is sent in February
12, 2008:
maybe you did not receive my last
email.
Can you ask James if
is possible to be paid for all the work done?($3355! ).
I'm still waiting for
the second half of 'the Librarian' ( October 2006!! ).
If only he could send
me for the moment the first half of the money I'm waiting for!
Please give me some
news.
Thanks!
Giuseppe
The employee wrote
back:
I forwarded the last e-mail to
James and talked to him yesterday, and he avoided me basically. If I were
you I would try and get a collections agency to get your money.
I am actually
leaving Atlantis Studios soon myself for similar reasons. He is doing many things that I don't
approve of instead of paying people like you who deserve
it.
[Editor’s Note: Emphasis is mine.
There are various theories circulating cyberspace about what this refers to.
We’re NOT suggesting anything criminal. However, we ARE very interested to know
what James’ priorities are – given that paying contractors to provide work for
clients doesn’t appear to be the number one priority. Remember, these are
the words of someone who worked closely with James Watson and Atlantis
Studios.]
I will try and keep reminding him
till I leave this month, but after that I will no longer be an
'employee'.
Giuseppe asks about collections
agencies and “Employee X” gives him some information about what they
do.
He goes on to
say:
If I could pay you I would,
unfortunately James conveniently ignores questions about money.
Then on March 14, an email from
James!
Hi, Giuseppe,
Hope all is
well?
I think our last communication was about funds owed for work on various
projects.
I didn't want you to think I'd disappeared - I've been working to
collect money to get your invoice(s) paid up, so we can move forward on new
projects.
I may have some $$$ to send to you early next week, in addition I
may have a Character Design Project that could bring in possible graphic novel
work.
Are you interested and/or
available?
James Watson
The timing of this is
interesting. Could this be a reference to “State’s Evidence?” I had, after all,
requested to work with Giuseppe back in December 2007.
On January 31, James had told me
he was “Working with Giuseppe on early drawings of main
characters”. (This was news to Giuseppe when I told him this last
month.)
On February 20th, James said:
“I'll send a request to Giuseppe to see what can be sent to you by the
end of the month” (Hard for Giuseppe to do given he’d never heard of the project
at this point.)
On the same
day James sent above email to Giuseppe, James was telling me:
“we are
doing character designs and hoping to have some art for you in the next
couple days”. (Art work which finally arrived – incomplete – on March 27th...
and NOT undertaken by Giuseppe...)
Giuseppe’s response was,
understandably, less than enthusiastic about undertaking more work which he
might never get paid for.
On March 20th,
Giuseppe wrote:
James,
I've lost my patience. I sent two
days ago a mail and you did not answer me.
What about the money I was
waiting for this week?
And you wanted me to work with you again? I want my money and
if you don't answer me, I'll work to get them in other
ways
And from
James:
Giuseppe,
I'm sorry - I get 200 e-mails a day, and not enough time to answer
all of them...
Yes, I want to work with you again.
Yes, I'll be sending
you some money this week, and over the coming weeks until our invoices are
settled with you.
You said you weren't interested in the character design
project, so I've given that to another artist.
Is that
okay?
So James has discovered Giuseppe
isn’t prepared to work for Atlantis Studios while invoices remain unpaid.
Never, in any of James’ emails to
me (and phone calls) did he EVER admit that this was the case. In an email in
June, I even said (not for the first time): “If Giuseppe's
unavailable (and it appears he is - for now anyway), is there another artist who
can do the work I'm owed?”
But James never responded
directly to this point.
The final email correspondence
between Giuseppe and James was on June
13th:
Hello James,
I'd like to talk to you about the
payments I'm waiting for. I should get about $3000, and this is a sum of money I
can't lose. Drawing comics is my job, I need to earn money in order to pay for
all my necessities. Please understand me.
You said you were going to send me
money until my invoices were settled.
Let's talk and see if we can get to a
convenient solution for both of us.
Do you really want to get the reputation
of a dishonest person?
Do you really want to begin a conflict?
Please
write me, and let me know if we can find a solution and if we can be back to a
good relationship. I'll be waiting for deeds and not
words.
Thanks,
Giuseppe
And from
James:
Giuseppe,
I am working through a
number of large financial obligations which are not easy to solve, and cannot be
resolved overnight.
I am committed to getting payment
to you for the work you've done for us, and get us back on track.
Please be
patient as I work through this, I hope within 30 days to begin resoution
payments.
Thanks
Of course, no payments were
forthcoming after 30 days. Just as they weren’t in the aftermath of James’
emails of 2007 (February 21, June 1, 7, 19, July 11) and 2008 (February 12,
March 4, 20).
So we find ourselves airing this
dirty laundry in public with the hope that others will be forewarned and not go
through the same trials as we suffered – and are continuing to
suffer.